Preacher David's Corner

Post  Ashe County Children's Christmas Project 2020”

The Ashe County Children’s Christmas Project 2020 is concluded for this year. We want to thank everyone who made it possible for 900 children to have a great Christmas. There are a lot of good people in Ashe County and beyond. We have folks from outside the county who helps us and we appreciate it as well. I will not try to mention all the names because I will miss someone, but you know who you are. Some folks took a hundred names or more and some folks took one name. All are important and God blessed those gifts, the children and their parents. There was prayer for them many times in the process. Jesus said it is better to give than to receive and these folks have learned that passage and are living it in their lives. Thank you so much, to God be the glory. Many different needs from the lady who had cancer and taking chemo (hands swollen too much to carry the bags of gifts, to the Father who had covid, to the child who has covid, so much pain and sorrow. There was the couple who lost their jobs because of covid, the Grandparents who are raising the family, to those in Foster Care, and the list goes on. Together we found a way to help them in the name of Jesus! They all say thank you and I do too! I did not know if we would be able to have this project this year because of COVID-19. We met with twenty different groups in the summer and they all said lets try to make it happen. The children are depending on us! Folks began to pray and to work to make it happen. God blessed us as only He can and He made it happen. Many of you were the hands and feet of God ! We did not wrap the gifts this year at Family Central because of COVID, we just received, bagged and carried them to storage. Later that week we moved the gifts to the gym at Ashe County Parks and Recreation at Family Central and placed them in numerical order in rows of hundreds. Volunteers worked all week to move the gifts and insure that they were in order. Folks from all walks of life came. It was a little bit of heaven on earth. A glimpse of how it will be in heaven one day! Face covering was worn and safety measures were put in place. The usual COVID recommendations were adhered to. Temperatures were taken of everyone who entered the gym on pickup day. Over 500 people came that day to pick up gifts for 900 children. 30 volunteers from Stanley Baptist Association, east of Charlotte, NC came and distributed 875 back packs filled with Christmas goodies, clothing and school supplies, all graded by age and sex and were given to each child in the family as we gave the bagged gifts to the children. As far we know ,no one got COVID that week due to God’s mercy at the Ashe County Children’s Christmas Project! It takes a lot of folks from Ashe County and beyond to make this happen. Businesses, churches, organizations , groups, individuals work together with God’s blessings to help make Ashe County the “coolest” corner in North Carolina. I'm glad to be a part of this community, trying to make it a better place to live. Together we can and do accomplish great things for God and His children. If you were not able to help this year perhaps you will again have the opportunity to help next year and be blessed as we were this past year. II Corinthians 9:7 says, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver”. Hebrews 13:16 says “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased”. James 1:17 says “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” . May we be a giver of gifts all year and be reminded that it is not about us, it is about God and others. What a wonderful God we serve! We are a blessed people, may we share with those who are less fortunate that they may know that there is a God in heaven that loves them and people in Ashe County and beyond that loves them too! 

Your Servant, David